Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on, or the music we’re loving.

Gabrielle Williams is reading Life With Birds by Bronwyn Rennex

I’ve just finished reading Life With Birds by Bronwyn Rennex, an unexpected delight that Dan from Readings Carlton recommended to me.

Surprisingly funny and gentle and quirky, Bronwyn Rennex is an artist and writer whose dad was a Vietnam veteran who died when she was a teenager. His sad quietness while he was alive, burrowed down to her core, and she decided to search the War Records to discover who her father was and what sort of trauma the war imposed on him. This is a book that seems to have flown under the radar, but it really deserves to be read. It’s fun, funny and very real.

Rosalind McClintock is reading the upcoming Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie and Love Marriage by Monica Ali.

I recently had a lovely beach holiday and with only a few dark clouds looming rather than lockdowns and I found I was able to read quite a lot! I started with Kamila Shamsie’s forthcoming book Best of Friends (October), which explores the intimacy of lifelong friendship; how it shifts and changes over time. We start in Karachi in 1988 and end in 2019 London.

I followed this with Moncia Ali’s_Love Marriage_ , which continued to surprise me as the characters were fleshed out and the plot line developed. I was never sure where Ali was going to take me next, and it was a real joy.

Jessica Strong is reading I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee (translated by Anton Hur)

I’m currently reading the recently translated Korean bestseller, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki. This book is quite unlike anything else I have recently read, and I think is best approached blindly, so I won’t say much here.

The basis of the book is as follows: over a 12-week period author Baek Sehee recorded each session with her psychiatrist and the transcripts from these sessions are what make up the bulk of this text. What you can expect is an incredibly personal and candid insight into one person’s ongoing mental health journey.